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C9040AB0-9AB9-4BBC-995C-B2E7075CBFA9.jpeg I hey

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong?

My 357 loads won't fit in the cylinder- they go halfway in and get stuck.

Tightening down my crimp die seems to help but I think I'm WAY overdoing it.

Here's a pic - does this look right?
What it doesn't really show is the outline of the bullet is pretty clearly visible in the brass. Any ideas? Too much belling?
 
Measure the OD of your handloads at the case mouth and compare that to a factory load.

That's where I'd start.
 
What diameter are those bullets? Almost looks like they have not been sized and are expanding the case as you seat them. Crimp should have nothing to do with this.

EDIT: Crimp should not affect this. Any remaining flare or belling of the case mouth certainly will. A 6" machinist's scale (or any straightedge) can easily check for flare/crimp.
 
Last Edited:
Have you shot a bunch of .38 spl. in this revolver? If so, you might need to clean the last third of the cylinder walls really well.
 
I am going out a 'limb' here and suspect you are feeling some 'resistance' as you are seating you bullets prior to them crimping? (this is assuming you are using a standard seating/roll crimp die)
If so you do NOT have your die adjusted correctly and crimping is taking place before the bullet is completely seated.
You should NOT feel any resistance as the bullet is seating and only a slight amount as the crimping operation is taking place.
 
Clean the cylinder like said above. I shoot primarily 38s out of my SP101 and if I go a while with scrubbing the cylinder, it's a pita to load a 357. Clean it up and they fall right in.

If that's not the case, I vote bullet diameter.

If that's not the case, try a taper crimp.
 
The picture isn't the greatest, but WTF are the two features I've underlined, or are they just optical illusions? [eta] I've loaded hundreds of 44 magnum and the ONE case that would jam 1/2 way into the cylinder had an almost imperceptible defect like the one above the red line.
upload_2018-10-10_20-53-37.png
 
Absolutely agree. Looks like the bell hasn't been crimped in. Tapers are hard to see, rolls are more finicky in adjustment and you need to trim the cases for uniformity if they've stretched (30-30).
Thus the need for calipers or a micrometer to measure the case mouth.
 
Like the others said, bullets are either too large, should be .358, or you arent crimping enough. It really looks like there isnt enough crimp on that case, but like dizzy said only some hard data from calipers will tell for sure.

I often have visible outlines of the bullets in my loads, that by itself doesn't mean much really, and it's hard to tell from a picture how bulged it really is.
 
Get a Lee FCD (Factory Crimp Die) and give up the 'antiquated' roll crimping, problematic issues. Major upside of the FCD is you never have to worry about slight case length variations.

The FCD for a .357 will still roll crimp, it just does it in a different way and applies a final sizing at the same time.
 
The picture isn't the greatest, but WTF are the two features I've underlined, or are they just optical illusions? [eta] I've loaded hundreds of 44 magnum and the ONE case that would jam 1/2 way into the cylinder had an almost imperceptible defect like the one above the red line.
View attachment 507703
So, with the case properly resize, from doing a full length resize, it's not unusual to see the bullet create that profile
In the brass case once it's been seated.

What I see is the bell hasn't been tapered by the seating die, those it's flared out and dragging when inserted into the cylinder because it's slightly larger than the bullet itself.

I'd back out the bottle seating portion of the die and working with empty unprimed case, adjust your die until that bell is being taken out. That typically will require the seating die to be touching the shell holder when you have gone full stroke on the press. Once you get that bell to a taper crimp, then you and readjust the bullet seating portion of the die to get the proper depth again.

I like working on empty cases when making adjustment and actually keep a perfect example of each bullet type I reload, so if I need to adjust my dies, I have a good working example.

I'll shut up now... Let me know if you have questions...
 
These are .38, but basically the same thing. You want your case mouth closed in as the bullet is seated. There should be a small amount of resistance at the end of your stroke where that roll over of the case mouth is performed (roll crimp). It may be as small as an eighth of an inch of press handle movement to achieve that, but it should be there. What brand dies are you using? The information I've provided is for Lee Carbide dies... 8915AEF7-431B-43A6-8510-4B37B2A79B80.jpeg
 

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